2000
Category:Calendar Freeciv's new game server 24 December 2000 :The new civserver.freeciv.org is up and running with all the features now activated. You can see the gamelog, last save game, power graphs and the animated maps as well. The machine is a Dual PII 333MHz with 256 MB of RAM and a 6GB HDD. Thanks to our generous hosts, this machine should handle the demand for quite some time. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv has moved 20 December 2000 :If you can read this, you made it over to the new location. We are now hosted on a much faster network that should be better connected to almost everyone. A big thanks to Ben Ciaccio for putting a webpage up at the old address to redirect folks over here. In a week most peoples DNS should be updated. :We also have a new civserver.freeciv.org. I am excited that the new machine will enable us to develop the game more fully by having the capacity for many more concurrent servers (alternate rulesets come to mind). Many thanks to Loren Skeels for his help in getting the new machine running. Thanks also to Reinier Post for helping set up the software on the new machine (He actually wrote almost all the code running on civserver.freeciv.org, old and new). :It all went pretty well. During the move I added a HDD to www.freeciv.org, which should give us some room to grow. I also patched the OS. Everything seems to up and running smoothly. The metaserver may appear a little empty as peoples DNS caches need to expire. Paul Zastoupil ---- The best of the best yay 19 December 2000 :Freeciv is considered by www.linuxworld.com to be, the best of the best :O) :BTW Merry Christmas to all ya Freecivers out there, may you have a GREAT white Christmas and a jolly New Year!!! Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- The servers are moving 18 December 2000 :Yup, you read it right (at least I hope you did). The Freeciv servers are moving. The move should take place Wednesday December 20, 2000. The down time shouldn't be more than 3 hours starting at 1100 PST (1900 UTC). During this time web, ftp, cvs, and civserver will all be down. The mailing lists will not be affected. :Many thanks to Dani Roisman for setting up the network at the new location and making it possible. :In case you have DNS problems after the move, www, ftp and cvs will be at 64.37.156.68, civserver.freeciv.org will be at 64.37.156.69. We should have some redirects for web traffic for a week after the move. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv is going to be moving 06 December 2000 :Freeciv is getting a new home! The bandwidth is being generously donated. The exact date and time of the move is not yet known, but check back soon, it will be before the end of the year. During the move all services (including this website, ftp, cvs and even civserver.freeciv.org) will be unavailable. The mailing lists will be unaffected. This move should provide a better link to the servers for nearly everyone. More details will be available soon, but if you have any questions feel free to email paulz. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv Banner Ad update 13 November 2000 :We have a winner! The International banner has won in the poll. All the votes are in and we have sent off the banner to OSDN. Be on the look out for a Freeciv banner and more visitors to the website. Thanks to everyone for voting and a special thanks goes out to all the contributors of the banners. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv Banner Ad Voting 9 November 2000 :Unlike an election that happened somewhere else recently, the banner voting seems to have a clear leader. The poll will stay up a little while longer to allow all the absentee votes to come in. Then all the votes will be carefully counted and verified by hand. When a clear winner has been selected the banner will be sent to OSDN. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv Banner Ad 6 November 2000 :It is time to decide what banner ad we are going to send to OSDN. Below are the finished banners that came in under the 14k limit. :lotr-tuma international :The poll allows you to vote for your favorite. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv for the Palm OS? 4 November 2000 :I was just browsing through the freeciv site and realised that it would be a very cool, if there was a port of freeciv to the Palm OS platform and possibly other handheld WinCE, etc. :I would be interested in contributing to and possibly even coordinating such a project. If you have an interest in this, please do mail me! Fil ---- StarCiv 4 November 2000 :This is Arnold Krille from Germany. I am trying to create a new game called StarCiv, based upon Star-Trek and FreeCiv. I hope you like this idea and want to support me. Go visit the projects page. :Next I want to say Thank you to all the Developers of FreeCiv! You made a very great game and I could play it all day and night if I had not to go to school... Arnold Krille ---- Mentioned again!!! 4 November 2000 :We have been mentioned again, this time at linux.com Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- ObjectCiv 4 November 2000 :Hi, I'm working on a port of Freeciv to C++, it's called ObjectCiv. We *do* need help with it at least two of us are University students. For more info. See the projects section. Rigel ---- Mailing Lists Up 02 November 2000 :Hurrah! The mailing lists are back up and running. :Thanks to John Goerzen for his efforts in repairing the problem, and for hosting the mailing lists. Jeff Mallatt ---- Tidbits 02 November 2000 :Guess what, we are nominated number 1 in the open source strategy game category, game awards, over at www.strategyshrine.com :An oldie has returned, the first and only interview about Freeciv is linked correctly now in the articles section. :Also check out the civilization clone "The Clash of Civilizations" in the related links section. :Oh my! Great Nations 1.6.0 is out :o) go grab ideas from them, you can find a link to it in the related links section. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Freeciv Banner Ad UPDATE 30 October 2000 :I received another email from OSDN and they have informed me that the file size limit is actually 14k not 12k as previously reported. There have been some great submissions over in the incoming directory. Take a look and maybe you can improve on some of them. The GIMP xcf files have been included for many of them. Paul Zastoupil ---- Mailing Lists Down 29 October 2000 :John Goerzen reports that, due to circumstances beyond his control, the Freeciv mailing lists are currently not working. He will have them working again, as soon as possible. Jeff Mallatt ---- Freeciv Banner Ad 19 October 2000 :Freeciv has received permission to have a banner ad on OSDN (Open Source Development Network). But in order for this to happen we need to have someone create an ad for us. Please submit 468x60 banners (12k or under) to the incoming directory. If we receive enough entries, we can have a poll to decide which one to use. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv article 09 October 2000 :The news site ShowMeLinux created a nice article about everyone's favorite game. :o) Andy Black ---- A new banner :-) vihu 19 September 2000 :Cool Mathias made a great banner, specially for you to use on your website. Find it below the "Who to contact" box. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- New utility civgo! 19 September 2000 :This is what Christian Knoke has to say about it: :"Civgo is a frontend application to control the server (and the client) of Freeciv, the great strategy game. It provides a comfortable graphical user interface, and supports most of the server options, saving and loading games, and changing player levels during the game." :You will need Tcl, Tk and of course Freeciv to make it work, go grab it at the download section, test it and feedback Christian. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Localized Web Pages 29 August 2000 :We have begun the process of localizing the Freeciv web site! :Thanks to Olivier Beyssac and Pascal Audoux for supplying French translations of the introduction, FAQ and, previously, the Freeciv manual pages. :This process is likely to take some time, and not everything may work all the time, so please bear with us while the site is in flux. Jeff Mallatt ---- New Caldera and Solaris binaries 28 August 2000 :Thanks to Shane Smit and Bryan Blackburn for supplying new versions of the Caldera and Solaris binaries. :You can find them on the download page. Jeff Mallatt ---- NeoTrident 18 August 2000 :NeoTrident is a new tile tileset made from satellite images and aerial photograps of the earth. It is based on the Trident tileset. :Kilroy (Rikard Anglerud) and Azazel is to be thanked for this, go visit their site too! www.lycanthropy.net Kilroy ---- FreeRails project to use Freeciv code base 17 August 2000 :The new FreeRails project is planning on using the Freeciv code base as a starting point. :Luke Ehresman <luke@squirrelmail.org> writes: My friends and I have long loved the game Railroad Tycoon, and would love to see a open source version, very similar to Freeciv. However, none of us have time to work on this due to dedication to other open source projects. We would love to see people run with the idea, and in a hopeful attempt at pushing the idea off to the open source community, I have created a SourceForge project. To find out more about the FreeRails project, visit the web page <http://freerails.sourceforge.net/> and be sure to join our mailing list as we discuss the future and feasibility of this project. :We wish them the best of luck! Jeff Mallatt ---- Black & White trident tileset. 03 August 2000 :Thank you Cameron Morland for making a black and white only tileset based on the trident tileset. Everybody with a black and white monitor go to the download section :) Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Even more! 25 July 2000 :Once again, go to the download section and discover that there are new binaries for Mandrake & Slackware. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Quickies 23 July 2000 :The download section has been update a bit with both a new Windows-X and 3 Redhat packages. And the TechTree tool has been updated too. Cool! Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Stable Version 1.11.4 Released 20 July 2000 : :Version 1.11.4 is done! Get it here download. Jeff Mallatt ---- SuSE package available!! 19 July 2000 :Way to go Pascal Bleser. Now go get it here download. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Fantasy Modpack updated! 19 July 2000 :The common problems, such as missing .tilespec, people discovered has been fixed. Hurra!! Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Roadmap updated 19 July 2000 :Ihave updated the roadmap, go take a look at it and if you see that something is missing or is incorrect, please mail me. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Beta Release 1.11.2 17 July 2000 :The first (and, hopefully only) beta version (1.11.2) is available for testing (gzip) or (bzip2). Also available as a "diff" between the previous stable version (1.11.0) and this one (gzip) or (bzip2). :See the NEWS file for information on what has changed. Jeff Mallatt ---- Fantasy modpack! 16 July 2000 :Somebody provided us with a Fantasy modpack :) It seems that it relies on the Ancients modpack, so you better get that one as well, while you visit the download section. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- A short-cycle release. 16 July 2000 :Because there have been some pretty bad bugs discovered in version 1.11.0, which have since been fixed, we are going to generate a short-cycle release at this time. :Since this is a short-cycle release (mostly bug-fixes), we are shortening the time it takes to make the release. Here's the schedule: :o Jul 17th - first (hopefully only) beta release (1.11.2) o Jul 20th - target release date for stable version 1.11.4 Jeff Mallatt ---- YAWX port 15 July 2000 :There is yet another windows-x port on the loose. This one made by Dan, go get it in the download section. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Windows package updated! 14 July 2000 :I have fixed some gfx bugs (units shown in the unit_pixmap) and included a README.windows.txt file which contains some information about freeciv on windows and where to get the sources of gtk/gdk/glib/imlib and where the patch to the original freeciv-1.11.0 source is. Andreas Kemnade ---- Chinese L10N 14 July 2000 :Torben Rechter has undertaken the task of translating Freeciv into Chinese. If there is anybody out there doing the exact same, then mail Torben. He intend to finish this projects in about 2 months :) Go for it Torben. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Windows port 10 July 2000 :We can all thank Andreas Kemnade for his acomplishment of porting Freeciv to the Windows platform :) Now go download it and see if it stands the test of time. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- OpenVMS port of Freeciv 09 July 2000 :Great news from Roger Tucker He managed to port Freeciv to the OpenVMS platform :) Kudo's to you Roger. Hopefully there will be a precompiled package for the next release of Freeciv. Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Quickes 08 July 2000 :Mathias Hasselmann Created two new icons for our pleasure. If I heard correct these has also been submitted to the G.N.O.M.E icon project. :On a side note this is my first news article since I returned from the army :o) :David Pfitzner announced this on the developers mailinglist: ".. I am pleased to announce version 3.0 of 'techtree', to suit the recently released Freeciv 1.11.0. :techtree is a program to produce postscript charts of the "technology tree" ("advances chart") for Freeciv (and potentially for other games, given appropriate input data). :Main news for this version: :*Instead of reading Freeciv ruleset files directly, uses output of Freeciv's 'rulesout techs' server command (new in Freeciv version 1.11.0). :*Limited native language support: can handle translated input file (e.g., created using localized Freeciv), if the translation uses ISO 8859-1 ("Latin-1") character set encoding." :You can go get it at www.mso.anu.edu.au Martin Willemoes Hansen ---- Version 1.3.0 of the Ancients Modpack for 1.11.0 is out 08 July 2000 :Bobby D. Bryant has updated and released a new version of the Ancients Modpack for Freeciv 1.11.0. Head over to the download page to get it. Paul Zastoupil ---- Version 1.11.0 is done! 29 June 2000 : It's done, and you can find it here (gzip) or here (bzip2). Thanks to all the developers and contributers to this project. :You can get a breif listing of the changes and additions news/releases/NEWS-1.11.0 here]. Jeff Mallatt ---- Last Beta Release before 1.11.0 28 June 2000 :The release of 1.11.0 is getting very close! One last beta version has been released, 1.10.6. A gzip of this newest beta version can be found here. A bzip2 can be found here. If you would rather, diffs from 1.10.4 can be found here (gzip) and here (bzip2). :This is the final beta version before the release of 1.11.0. Only critical bug-fixes, translation updates and administrative changes will be committed between now and the 1.11.0 release. So, now is the time to get the translations up to date, and to submit information for inclusion in the NEWS, PEOPLE, BUGS and TODO files. :Unless something major crops up, I'll be making the delivery of 1.11.0 either late tomorrow or early Friday. Jeff Mallatt ---- Beta Release 1.10.4 21 June 2000 :The release of 1.11.0 is getting closer, and another beta version (1.10.4) has been released. A gzip of the newest beta version can be found here. A bzip2 can be found here. If you would rather, diffs from 1.10.2 can be found here (gzip) and here (bzip2). :The target date for the release of Version 1.11.0 remains June 27th. :Please use this (or, preferably, the latest CVS) as the basis for any bugs you report or patches you submit. Jeff Mallatt ---- Feature Freeze for 1.11.0 14 June 2000 :There is a feature freeze for version 1.11.0 of Freeciv. There are lots of great, new features in the development version that now need to be tested as thoroughly as possible before release. :The target date for the release of Version 1.11.0 is June 27th. :During the beta period (from now to release), we will generally be focusing on bug-fixing, and only committing bug-fix patches to the CVS. It is also the time during which the set of translatable strings will (hopefully) stabilize enough to give the translators a chance to catch up. :The first beta test version of the source code for this release cycle will be available soon FTP_BETA. Paul Zastoupil ---- Another games site mentions Freeciv 06 June 2000 :Steven Shultz informed us that the Gamespot site mentions Freeciv as a classic Linux game. Freeciv has never been a Linux-only game; initial development was on IRIX. But we're proud to be mentioned there. Reinier Post ---- Freeciv Intro 31 May 2000 :Zop has written a great civintro/ introduction to Freeciv]. It has been added to the site. As always with this site, questions, comments and (especially) fixes are always welcome. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv Review 10 May 2000 :Lance Levsen was kind enough to point out a new review of Freeciv over at canadacomputes.com. It's not very long or in depth, but if your like me (poor you), you'll want to read everything written about Freeciv. Paul Zastoupil ---- Freeciv Forum on Apolyton.net 10 May 2000 :There is now an official Freeciv forum on the Apolyton Civilization Site. Apolyton is a huge discussion site for Civilization, its variants and related games. This will probably give Freeciv a lot of exposure to people who otherwise wouldn't know about it. Paul Zastoupil ---- 1.10.0 for Windows and Caldera 01 May 2000 :Binaries for Windows (requiring an X-server) and Caldera for Freeciv 1.10.0 have both been uploaded. Please check out the download page for more. Paul Zastoupil ---- A GPL'd Civ2 tileset 01 May 2000 :Tim Smith created a set of graphics for Civ 2. The graphics are copyrighted under the GPL so if anyone would like to give a crack at making some or all of them work for freeciv, please feel free. They can be found under the tilesets section of the ftp site under the file name HIRESV24.ZIP. Paul Zastoupil ---- Web Site Changes 28 April 2000 :You may have noticed that much of the Freeciv web site is marked as Updated today. This is just the result of some minor clean-up that I did. The content of most of the pages has not changed. :One page has actually changed: the Localization page. And, a new Internationalization page has been added. This new page provides a quick overview of what coders need to do to make their code "internationalized". Jeff Mallatt ---- Webmaster Returns 24 April 2000 :Well I am back. Not that this is really Freeciv news, but now you will be seeing updates on the website once again. I hope everything went smoothly while I was gone. I do appologize for the civserver.freeciv.org hiccup. I have another machine ready for use, but haven't had time to get all the software over there yet. Paul "The Married Man" Zastoupil ---- Confirmed News: congratulations webmaster! 09 April 2000 :Yes, it's final, and probably off-topic, but here goes: Paul Zastoupil, our webmaster and the owner of the www.freeciv.org machine, was married this afternoon to Camaryn Idler. I'll take the occasion to remind us all that if we can make Freeciv releases as smooth, as happy, as exciting as the event I just witnessed, a bright future for Freeciv will be assured. Hooray for Paul and Cammy! :Which reminds me, the latest CVS snapshot already has some great new features: including 'fog of war', which obscures enemy units that are no longer within 'reach' of one's own units or cities. Reinier Post ---- Slow News 03 April 2000 :You may have noticed that the news has been a little slow lately. So that you don't think that the website is dead and that I took my ball and went home, I thought it was an appropriate time to post a news item. I am getting married on 9 April 2000, so I will be unavailable for 2 weeks after that. There are a few other people with access to update news, however unless something really really major comes up, don't expect it to end up here. If you are interested in following development closer check out the mailing list archives, or if you really feel like being a part, join the mailing lists. :I got a digital camera as a wedding present, so here is a pic of www.freeciv.org. Paul Zastoupil ---- Change back on Civserver.freeciv.org 17 March 2000 :We have changed Civserver.freeciv.org behavior back to it's original mode. Connecting to it will once again give everyone cmdlevel ctrl. This happend early this week. Please see civserver.freeciv.org. :Also, gamelogs are also available from there when the game has ended. Paul Zastoupil ---- Sounds for Freeciv 09 March 2000 :There is a new sounds/sounds.html sounds page] for people who would like to contribute to the sounds of Freeciv. Support for sound will be going into Freeciv so this is a call to everyone to help contribute to the project. This is a great way for those of you who can't contribute code to get involved. Paul Zastoupil ---- Change on Civserver.freeciv.org 08 March 2000 :There is a new patch that has gone into the games on civserver.freeciv.org. This patch changes the way that command levels are assigned. From now on the first player to connect gets cmdlevel ctrl while subsequent connectes get cmdlevel info. This will make the first person to connect the operator much like on IRC. Please see civserver.freeciv.org. :On a small related note, save games will now be available for games played on civserver.freeciv.org as well. Paul Zastoupil ---- Searching the Website 06 March 2000 :You are now able to search www.freeciv.org using htdig. You will find the search box on the index page under INFO/HELP. Paul Zastoupil ---- Another Freeciv Review 01 March 2000 :There is a review of Freeciv written by Joe Wright. It is over at The Haus. Check out the review here. Paul Zastoupil ---- 1.10.0 PPC Version 28 February 2000 :Thanks to Henry Towsner there is an updated PPC version of 1.10.0 now available here. Paul Zastoupil ---- New Screenshots 25 February 2000 :New screenshots of the 1.10.0 clients are available on the screenshots/screenshots.phtml screenshots page]. Paul Zastoupil ---- Mandrake RPM for 1.10.0 is available 25 February 2000 :Thanks to Jan Dittberner, there is a Mandrake rpm available for 1.10.0 here. Paul Zastoupil ---- Version 1.10.0 is done! 21 February 2000 : It's done, and you can grab it here (gzip) or here (bzip2). Thanks to all the developers and contributers to this project, you can get a breif listing of the changes and additions news/releases/NEWS-1.10.0 here]. :The native Amiga client is here, thanks to Sebastian Bauer. :There is also a Solaris package here, thanks to Bryan Blackburn. Paul Zastoupil ---- One last Beta Release 19 February 2000 :The release of 1.10.0 is getting very close! One last beta version has been released, 1.9.6. A gzip of the newest beta version can be found here. A bzip2 can be found here. If you would rather, diffs from 1.9.4 can be found here (gzip) and here (bzip2). :This is the final beta version before the release of 1.10.0. Only critical bug-fixes, translation updates and administrative changes will be committed between now and the 1.10.0 release. So, now is the time to get the translations up to date, and to submit information for inclusion in the NEWS, PEOPLE, BUGS and TODO files. :Unless something major crops up, the delivery of 1.10.0 will be on Monday the 21st of February. Paul Zastoupil ---- Another Beta Release 11 February 2000 :The release of 1.10.0 is getting closer. Another beta version has been released, 1.9.4. A gzip of the newest beta version can be found here. A bzip2 can be found here. If you would rather, diffs from 1.9.2 can be found here (gzip) and here (bzip2). :Please use this (or, preferably, the latest CVS) as the basis for any patches you submit. Paul Zastoupil ---- CVS Civserver 9 February 2000 :There is now a CVS server running on port 5550 on civserver.freeciv.org. The line in the metaserver should tell you the last time the server was built. It runs nightly from a cron job that grabs the latest cvs and complies it. Sometimes it can be hard to find players to test the latest version so hopefully this will help Paul Zastoupil ---- Beta Release 2 February 2000 :A gzip of the beta version can be found here. A bzip2 can be found here. :Please use this (or, preferably, the latest CVS) as the basis for any patches you submit. :Special note for translators: Part of the process of making a distribution runs all the .po files through msgmerge. This will happen each time a beta version is published, and these changes will be reflected in both the CVS and in the posted distribution files. Paul Zastoupil ---- Feature Freeze 25 January 2000 :Jeff Mallatt has announced a feature freeze and start of a beta period starting January 30. All you delevelopers get your features in, and all you gamers get ready for some really cool new features and a new stable release (1.10.0) likely sometime in late February. Paul Zastoupil ---- Solaris Package 20 January 2000 :Bryan Blackburn emailed to say that he had put together some Solaris packages for version 1.9.0. They are in the download section or you can find them in the ftp archives. Paul Zastoupil ---- Open Game Source: Freeciv 19 January 2000 :Dennis Payne has written a review and patch for Freeciv to make it more like the Microprose® "Master of Magic©". The patch does make it incompatible with the current code. (We should be close to being able to do this with the rulesets.) Paul Zastoupil ---- Mirroring the Website 13 January 2000 :If you would like to mirror the Freeciv Website use rsync. Please, please do not use any other mirroring software as it will bog down the webserver and get stuck in the LXR part of the tree. This has happened twice this week. If you would like to mirror the site please send me an email and I will make sure you get up and running. Paul Zastoupil ---- Slow News Day 11 January 2000 :News has been a little slow, so instead of leaving you all hanging and thinking that this site never updates I thought I would give you an idea of whats going into the next version of freeciv, many people have been busy. A release date has not been set nor even a final list of whats going to be included, so don't take this as gospel, just the ramblings of someone who follows the project. Cool features: Barbarians, farmland, easier tilespec editing, 'occupychance' server option, 'read' and 'write' server commands, and (hopefully) worklists. Other changes: updates to translations, bug fixes, code cleanups, multiple clients in the same codebase (Xaw, GTK, amiga, beos, win32) and many optimizations. :You can check out the changelog or just grab the latest CVS snapshot if you like. :The developers have been very busy, many thanks to all who have contributed to the greatest game on electrons. (Ok, so I am biased, so what.) Paul Zastoupil ---- Open Source Strategy Game Of The Year 3 January 2000 :Vegard Skjefstad emailed to say that Freeciv has won "Open Source Strategy Game Of The Year" from The Strategy Shrine. Paul Zastoupil ---- RedHat RPMS available 3 January 2000 :Kevin Breit noticed that RedHat RPMS were available from ftp.redhat.com but I have also mirrored them on the download page. Paul Zastoupil